Kate Middleton and Prince William Share a Surprise Photo of the Royal Children on Christmas Morning

More than ever, the message is one of normalcy, the Waleses’ positioning that of a down-to-earth couple whose primary concern is giving their children as stable and healthy an upbringing as possible. They have deliberately chosen to live in the four-bedroomed Adelaide Cottage in lieu of Windsor Castle proper; they no longer have a live-in nanny in the form of Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo (although she does still work for them); and their kids are enrolled at the nearby Lambrook School in Ascot, with Prince William and Kate Middleton doing the school run themselves each morning.

If, as is widely expected, George follows in his father’s footsteps and enrolls as a boarder at Eton in a few years, the family’s move also means they’re now just 15 minutes from campus–readily available if and when the Prince should need them–while the Middletons are less than an hour away at Bucklebury Manor, poised to take on any necessary grandparent duties.

It wasn’t the last we saw of the Waleses this Christmas, of course. The fivesome arrived in tandem for a carolling service at Westminster Abbey on 8 December, dressed in the red, white and blue of the Union Jack. After posting letters to Father Christmas, the children joined their parents inside the church for the third “Together at Christmas” concert, which aired Christmas Eve in the UK. And on Christmas Day itself, William, Kate, George, Charlotte and Louis were front and centre during the Windsors’ annual walk to church on the Sandringham estate.

This article was originally published by British Vogue.